Monday, February 8, 2010

My Very First Actual Recipe

Years ago, when I was like 8 or 9 (maybe 10), I was helping my mom make dinner for my dad for his birthday. She had bought some chicken leg quarters. She pulled down ALL the spices from her spice cabinet. She let me sit there smelling them & tasting them til I created my own recipe for the chicken. I'm not really sure how long it took me, but I do vividly remember standing there at the counter intently deciding what spices made the best combination for my dad's special meal. After much consideration, I decided on "Rosemary Coriander Chicken".

My mom and I then covered each piece of chicken in salt, pepper, rosemary & coriander. Then she pan fried them in a little oil & butter. The chicken was incredible and my dad LOVED it. It quickly became a staple in our house after that.

The funny thing about my recipe is it never got referred to as just "chicken". I never asked "What's for dinner?" and had my mom reply "Chicken" or "chicken quarters". It was always called "Rosemary Coriander Chicken".

I have made it several times for my family, especially at our last house in Texas where we grew a rosemary bush in the front yard. But I didn't realize til this week that I had gotten out of the habit of calling it by it's full name.

In fact, I hadn't even decided on how I was going to cook the leg quarters until I opened my spice cabinet and saw the brand new bottle of coriander that I bought a couple weeks ago and I suddenly craved it. Eating it always gives me the chance to think about my childhood and remember my dad. I knew I'd have to tell the kids we were having "Rosemary Coriander Chicken" for dinner. Zach especially got a kick out of the fact that I wasn't much older than him when I created the recipe all by myself.

Now, I don't dare google it. I'm sure somebody out there somewhere has come up with the same idea. I'm sure somebody has coined it as their recipe. So my apologies to whoever if this comes out sounding like I straight plagiarized it. But I do know I created this from my heart. So if someone else has created the same exact recipe, well that just means they have really good tastes. :)

Remove skin from chicken quarters (you can leave them on, but I remove them in an effort to be a little healthier). Rinse chicken in warm salt water, then rinse again in clean water. Pat the chicken dry. Evenly sprinkle the chicken with coriander. Sprinkle rosemary on the chicken and salt & pepper to taste. Heat the oil & butter over the stove in an oven safe pan.

Place chicken in the pan. Cook til the bottom side is nicely browned. Then flip to brown the other side (5-6 minutes each side). Once both sides are browned, put a lid on the pan. You can either turn down the heat and continue to cook it on the stove, or transfer the pan to a 350 degree oven. Cook for an additional 30-40 minutes. Chicken can be served as is or with the following pan sauce.

Deglaze the pan with a 1/2 cup of white wine. Scrape up all the 'bits' off the bottom of the pan. Allow wine to simmer til it cooks down by about half. Turn off heat. Stir in a small pat of butter. Sauce goes great over roasted potatoes if you desire!